2 responses to “What would You like me to write about ?”

1. 
   Clive Radvan July 13, 2011 at 6:01 pm | Permalink | Reply

   I have a query about genearating cable numbers….
   Over the last 3 years or so I have been involved with drawing technical diagrams for a TV station (typically video, audio and control cabling).
   I use excel to generate and record all the cables numbers required for each drawing and I also
   make use of the A.C.N.E program to generate an as built cable number schedule as well as finding errors.

   Till now I have to manually enter the cable numbers from excel to the drawing.
   For a long string of numbers, say a a patch panel I use CADET editor to populate consecutive in/out pins.

   Is it possible in AutoCAD (not LT) to automatically add or generate cable numbers into the drawing?
   For example, import from Excel into the cable attributes or start the sequence with the first
   number, say 10234 and then automaticall increment from there accross the drawing.

   Obviously this would require the blocks to have correct attributes as expected with the use of the A.C.N.E. program.

   Thanks for your time.

   Cheers

   Clive

   1. 
      CADbloke July 14, 2011 at 7:51 am | Permalink | Reply

      Hi Clive

      Short answer – yes. Long answer – I could, should and will write a series of blog posts on this. I’ve recently had my first child so they won’t be a fast series of blog posts but I’ll try to get one or two out to cover the basics. Here’s an answer in-between.

      I use ATTOUT & ATTIN a lot for this. You can find it in the old-style menus under Express –> Blocks –> Export Attribute Information | Import Attribute information. It is in the (ugly) Ribbon under Express tools, on the left. Here is a blog post on it: http://thecadgeek.com/blog/2008/03/update-block-attributes-using-excel/

      The main point I would add to that blog post is that when you import the text into Excel make sure you set all the columns as text so you don’t get things like “1/2″ turning into dates and other assorted Excel formatting weirdness. You can also re-order and delete columns – except for the Handle and Block Name columns, leave them alone. You can sort the rows in any order as long as you keep the heading row at the top. Don’t leave any gaps between columns and rows. Insertion order determines the order of the block Handles. A tip if you’re using arrays to make collections of blocks – make one extra and delete the original one you cloned; the Handles tend to flow in a neater order.

      I use a modified version of the attout.lsp included with AutoCAD which opens the export in Excel automatically but I can’t distribute that because it is copyrighted code. I am, however, working on a custom version of this which would automate a lot of things and allow for more sorting options. If you’re interested in this then I may enlist you as a beta-tester. I estimate about 6 months or so until I have something worth testing.

      Hope this helps
      cheers
      Ewen

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